I also got a lightning pic. It only took me about 50 tries. I was standing with the shutter release partly pressed to keep the focus and trying to press it fast enough when I saw lightning. There were very interesting clouds tonight but this pic is pretty unremarkable except for the lightning. A few minutes later the storm caught me. Driving through a heavy thunderstorm the sun started peeking between the clouds and the mountains. It was still a hazy ball, bright to look at but not blinding. There were numerous bolts of lighning going across it and on either side of it. A very bizzare sight and I was riding on a busy highway in a downpour. Oh well, even if Icould have pulled over, I doubt I could have captured that.

that lightning pic is fab, what strikes me is that the overall scene is almost serene, and the lightning adds a power display to it. I love the way you've captured in the side of the frame, it gives the viewer a chance to absorb the entire scene. The subtle foreground lighting is excellent as well! That last shot is a bargain for only 50 tries!

i'm with vonnagy on this one awesome shot. the three horizontal stripes are a cool graphical effect too. maybe crop it a little tighter vertically to go rule-of-thirds-y?

so you were using a fast shutterspeed? i tried that one time and got a lot of nothing, then i came on here and heard lots of people talking about doing it with slow shutterspeeds... probably easier :roll:

The lightning pic makes a better desktop background than I would have thought. It's calming and uncluttered. The only problem I have with it is that the look of the rain makes me sleepy for some reason. If anyone wants the high resolution version, I'll be glad to email it (if it will email, it's 837KB)

Both of these are really nice. I think the first one needs a little crop off the bright sky at the top to help emphasize the richness of the foreground, but very beautiful. The second one is just about as perfect as it gets.